NBA: Gerald Wallace goes deep to help Boston Celtics

Gerald Wallace has by far the deepest voice on the Celtics. Wallace has also become one of the team's best deep shooters.

Wallace entered Saturday shooting 45.5 percent (10 of 22) from 3-point range, by far the best percentage of his 13-year NBA career.

"I'm just shooting it," Wallace said. "I'm not even thinking about it, just catching it and shooting it. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it up and make the shots when they're there."

His best 3-point percentage for an entire season was 37.1 in 2009-10 with Charlotte.

He shot only 28.2 percent last season for Brooklyn and his career percentage is 31.6 percent.

So he's off to a surprisingly strong start this season.

Wallace's overall field goal percentage entering Saturday was 49.3 percent, one of the highest of his career.

But even though Wallace has shot the ball well from the field, he has shot it worse than ever from the foul line, an embarrassing 35.7 percent. Heck, even Dwight Howard would snicker at that.

And, yes, Wallace is shooting a higher percentage from the 3-point arc than the foul line. Wallace entered Saturday only 10 of 28 at the line. Prior to this season, he made 71.5 percent of his free-throw attempts in his career, including 80 percent just two years ago.

But his slide at the line began last season when he dipped to 63.7 percent.

Asked about how he could be shooting 3-pointers better than free throws, Wallace figured he must have shot more 3s than free throws, but that wasn't the case.

"My (foul) shooting was kind of flat," he said."The more I get to the free-throw line and get to the basket, the more my rhythm will come back at the free-throw line."

Jared Sullinger has emerged as a 3-point threat, sinking 6 of 9 attempts against Memphis and Cleveland after making just 2 of 13 over his previous four games. Entering Saturday, Sullinger was shooting 33.3 percent for the season.

"I don't think he shoots enough of them," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after Sullinger made two in the fourth quarter Wednesday against Memphis, "and I've said that all year."

Sullinger sank 40 percent of his 3-point shots two years ago at Ohio State, but took only five 3s in 45 games as rookie last season and made only one before undergoing season-ending back surgery.

He said he worked on his 3-point shooting all summer.

"Before I got hurt," Sullinger said, "Doc (Rivers) last year gave me the leeway to shoot the 3, but I got hurt, so you all couldn't really see it."

Entering Saturday, the Celtics were shooting 34.1 percent from threeland as a team to rank 19th in the league. Stevens believes the 3-point shot is a weapon the Celtics must use.

"You know we don't have guys," he said, "that necessarily are going to dominate in isolation all the time, but what we do have is guys who have some skill, have some unique skill for their position and can move the ball when we're moving it well. So you want to try to take advantage of that. So you find what your strengths are."

More importantly the Celtics have allowed the opposition to shoot a league-low 31.3 percent.

"I think we're doing a pretty good job," Stevens said, "of identifying guys that make shots at a high rate.

"The cynic in me would say when we throw the ball to the other team they lay it in usually instead of shooting a 3. But I think it's more of the former."

East contains least

Few blamed Danny Ainge for blowing up the Celtics after they stumbled last season to a 41-40 record, their worst record in Kevin Garnett's six years with the team, but a record of even one game over .500 would look really good in the Atlantic Division right now.

Entering Saturday, Toronto led the division with a 6-9 record, followed by Boston (7-11), Philadelphia (6-11), Brooklyn (4-12) and New York (3-12).

New Orleans resides in last place team in the Southwest Division, but its 7-8 record is good enough to top the Atlantic Division.

But it's not just the Atlantic Division that's struggling. Only three of the 15 Eastern Conference teams took winning records in to Saturday, but 11 of the 15 Western Conference teams did.

With Derrick Rose out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus in his right knee, the Bulls are no longer a contender in the Eastern Conference. That leaves Miami and Indiana as the only two threats in the East. The rest of the conference is so weak, the Celtics could end up winning more games than fans of tanking want them to win. They're 6-5 in their conference.

Entering Saturday, the Eastern Conference was 21-55 (.276) against the Western Conference. Indiana and Miami were the only Eastern Conference teams with winning records against the West.

Rookie's Fitchburg tie

Kendrick Perkins called his Oklahoma City teammate Steven Adams the steal of the 2013 NBA Draft.

Maybe that's because Adams reminds Perkins of himself. Both like to get physical. In fact, Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki called Adams "the white Kendrick Perkins" because of his willingness to mix it up.

On Nov. 6, Adams inadvertently elbowed Vince Carter, and the Mavs veteran retaliated with an intentional elbow to Adams' head. Carter was slapped with his first suspension in his 16 NBA seasons.

A couple of nights later, Adams had 17 points and 10 rebounds in 30.5 minutes in a win at Detroit. Believe it or not, less than two years ago, he was playing for coach Ryan Hurd at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg.

Adams, 20, grew up in New Zealand and played a year of pro basketball there, but didn't get paid so he was eligible to play as an amateur in the U.S. In January 2012, he joined Notre Dame midway through the season and averaged 12 points and 14 rebounds in his only semester at the school. Just two weeks after entered Notre Dame, he collected 23 points and 13 rebounds against Tilton (N.H.) School and held the opposing team's star to 14 points and seven rebounds. That player was Nerlens Noel, the No. 1 recruit in the country who signed with Kentucky, but Adams admitted he had never heard of him.

New Orleans took Noel with the sixth pick last June, then dealt him to Philadelphia. He's still recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered in his left knee during his only season at Kentucky.

The Thunder chose Adams with the 13th pick after he played one season for the University of Pittsburgh. OKC cared more about his 7-foot, 250-pound frame than the 7.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2 blocks he averaged last season.

This season, he's backing up Perkins, the former Celtic, but his stats are better. Adams is averaging 4.6 points, 5,1 rebounds and 1.14 blocks in 17.9 minutes.

In a win over the Clippers on Nov. 21 on TNT, Adams had 6 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in just under 24 minutes. TNT analyst Charles Barkley told newsok.com that he expected Adams to replace Perkins as the starter at some point this season.

That start could come as soon as tonight against Minnesota because Perkins dislocated the ring finger on his left hand in the first half of a 113-112 OT win over Golden State Friday and didn't return.

"I like the Adams kid a lot," Barkley said, "and I think he is going to be the key whether they can go to the next level."

Adams is the youngest of 18 children that his father had with five women, but he's not the most accomplished athlete in the family. His sister. Valerie Adams, won the gold medal in the shot put in each of the past two Olympics.